Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Poker Celebrities on Twitter - Hop on the Cluetrain

The Cluetrain Manifesto (it's a book) reinforced something in me that is important for all of you to know. The simple message of the book is that your users, followers, bloggers or fans want the straight dope, no filters. Almost all of you are doing it wrong and I am here to help you. Follow back - You are a niche celebrity this allows you a great opportunity to have a micro relationship with your fans that other celebrities can not. You should take advantage of that. This is not high school - only using @replies to other celebrity poker players makes you lame. If you are on twitter you should be promoting the brands you represent, your most important brand of course is yourself. Why would you alienate the very people that are following you? If you do not engage your followers in conversation through @replies you should go back to facebook. Buying followers means you actually are not popular - no one on twitter goes ZOMG some guy I do not know has 36,000 followers, I must follow him/her. In fact, that brings me to a larger point, twitter is not about followers, it is about targeted followers. Figure out a criteria (or even have your assistant do it) to filter the people that are most likely to be your target audience, if their profile says "poker hobbyist" and they follow you, follow them back, it is what you are on twitter to do. So you want to be anonymous? - I can just hear the self importance ringing in a couple of people's heads, "but I really only want to use twitter to communicate with the people that I know". Cool, take off your avatar, put up a name like 1o2o3o4 and no one will know who you are nor will they care. Admit it, you like the adulation at least a little bit, why not use it to your advantage? If you entertain us no need to follow back - phil_hellmuth does not need to follow me as long as he loses money playing online poker and twittering a drunken tirade. Are you writing what you would read? If you do not think you would care what you are saying then please do not subject us to it. Follow your critics and or media - Nothing makes you look better than engaging the people that cover you. They also happen to be the people with large numbers of followers. Becoming part of the conversation on articles that are written about you is what twitter is all about. Your fans will love it too! Be something - whether it is controversial, drunk or arrogant nothing sells like a niche. "David Oppenheim just cursed out a dealer, he can be a bit of a dick when he is stuck", bam, you just got 1000 more followers. Be yourself - What are you reading online? Who do you follow? People want to know more about who you are, good, bad and ugly. Showing people you are a real person is the truest way to gain a strong following. Sell us something - Promote your brands unabashedly, we actually want to buy the things you are selling. Just do not over do it.
Tags: Articles twitter poker players